WASHINGTON - The House Republican leadership successfully marshaled its members today to defeat a House bill to reauthorize the Native Hawaiian homeownership bill, even while the bill's sponsor, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, was on the chamber's floor thanking Republicans for not taking a partisan stance on the issue.

"I'm very pleased to see that this has not become a partisan issue and that it has not ended up dividing us," Abercrombie said on the floor.

But at the same time, an e-mail alert from House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, labeled the bill unconstitutional because it would guarantee special federally backed housing benefits to Native Hawaiians.
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The House rejected the bill on a 262-162 vote — 28 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage under a special procedure that limits debate on noncontroversial legislation.

The bill failed after House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio urged his party to vote against it. Abercrombie said on the House floor that he and Boehner had come to agreement on the measure — but while Abercrombie was speaking, the majority leader’s office issued a press release urging a no vote.

Abercrombie stumbled on the floor — “I just got a little note here that set me off a little bit,” he said — and his spokesman, Dave Helfert, said the congressman had received a copy of Boehner’s statement.

In the release, Boehner argued that benefits for Native Hawaiians were unconstitutional because of a Supreme Court decision, Rice v. Cayetano, which declared they could not have different statewide voting rights than other Hawaii citizens. Boehner said the court suggested that special legal privileges for Native Hawaiians are unconstitutional.
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Helfert said Abercrombie’s office would try to bring the housing bill up again, preferably under normal rules that would require a simple majority to pass.